Field
This invention relates generally to a mini self-defense missile (MSDM) system provided on an aircraft for destroying incoming threats and, more particularly, to an MSDM system provided on a high performance military aircraft that includes miniature precision guided missiles provided outside of a main weapons bay on the aircraft, where the system identifies and tracks potential incoming threats and deploys the guided miniature missiles to destroy the threats.
Discussion
Air superiority is an important aspect of modern day warfare, and can generally be obtained in a number of ways including aircraft stealth, precision weapons, advanced targeting technologies, etc. Modern day US tactical aircraft have been successful in countering enemy missiles through various technologies, such as shooting out chaff from the aircraft, towing decoys behind the aircraft, shooting flares from the aircraft, etc., all of which are intended to confuse or draw away the incoming missile threat. However, the ability to operate largely uncontested in a particular air space as a result of these and other capabilities has been continually eroded over time, where the capability to track and defeat missile threats is decreasing. Further, exclusive reliance on even higher levels of reduced observability will be insufficient to ensure unfettered freedom of operation in the future.
Technologies for engaging incoming missile threats using kinetic weapons that track the target is generally known in the art. More particularly, defense systems exist in the art that are able to acquire, track and engage offensive missiles intending to destroy ground-based targets. For example, the patriot missile system is a ground-based kinetic defense system that is able to acquire incoming missiles through radar detection and fire a patriot interceptor missile to engage the incoming missile threat, which is equipped with a missile guidance system. Course correction commands are transmitted to the missile guidance system from the ground-based defense system. A target acquisition system on the missile acquires the target and transmits acquisition data to the controller for further course correction calculations.